The present invention relates to a business form recognition system and method.
Business forms are a special class of documents typically used to collect or distribute data. Their use is widespread across industry and government, and their volume accounts for a very large portion of the paperwork needed to conduct business. The present invention is a form recognition mechanism that provides the basis for developing image processing systems capable of dealing with multiple form formats simultaneously.
The use of digital instruments to capture and manage document images has gained considerable acceptance during the last few years. A wide variety of systems capable of scanning, processing, displaying and storing these images are now commercially available. They range from stand-alone personal computers, with a simple scanner and few megabytes of secondary memory, to large networks of workstations and mainframes, with high-speed scanners and gigabytes of optical storage.
The majority of these so-called Document Image Management Systems (DIMS) are designed to process batches of homogeneous documents, e.g., canceled checks, insurance claims, or credit card vouchers. While this approach is satisfactory in today's very-large volume operations, it is likely that new applications will have to process groups of heterogeneous documents. This is believed to be particularly so if the use of DIMS reaches all areas of an organization including units such as the mail room, the production floor, or the personnel department, where there is not a predominant type of document, but rather an assortment of formats.